Kids Say and Do the Darnedest Things.

An extended edition of "Kids Say and Do the Darnedest Things".

Miss. Molly is in a roll this week with all these little gems:

"I not a lady, I a gurl!"

Me, "Can you place nicely?" Molly, "Me no place nice."

"I not a baby, I a little kid."

"This my Sophie, this my Mama, this me," when meeting friends in the school yard.

To the pizza man, "Thank you for pissa. I wear 'rina jammies." (Translation: "Thank you for the pizza. I'm wearing ballerina pajamas."

To the lady in the drugstore as we bought a package of pull-ups, "These my underwear."

And on and on it goes. Learning to talk is a wonderful thing!

Friday Five - Its been a while!

Lets stop bullying together, now!

Please visit Sippy Cup Chronicles for a great blogging anti-bullying campaign.

ABCs of Me

A - Adventurous, I am not!

B - Books, I can't live without them.

C - Can't ride a bicycle, its true.

D - Daughters, two of them.

E - Exercise.  I battle everyday to be active and to enjoy exercising, its getting easier but not easy yet.

F - Fall leaves, golden sunlight, cool nights, and cozy sweaters all make for my favourite time of year.

G - Girlfriends.  I couldn't get through the good, the bad and the ugly without them.

H - Hobby suggestions?  I need a new one.

I - Ice cream!  If the world didn't have ice cream I would be at least two sizes smaller.

J - JD is my high school sweetheart, best friend of 13 years and husband of 7.  Love you!

J, again - June, Molly's birth.

K - Kids.  All day.  School kids.  My kids.  All day there are kids!

L -  Libraries are really great places, but cracking the spine on a new book gives me butterflies.

M -  Movies and cuddles.  :-)

N - November, Sophie's birth.

O -  October, when we were married.  xoxo

P - Princess and pink, yech!  I'd trade pretty in pink, for beautiful in blue any day.

Q - Quiet.  I like the quiet.  I love quiet moments by myself.  Quiet solitude.

R -  Reading in my jammies, cuddled up in bed on a rainy day is my absolute favourite.

S -  Sadie isn't my real name, but it does have special memories and my real name does start with S.

T - Teaching is my second career, and even though I'm underemployed I'm loving every minute of it.

U - Understood, sometimes I feel misunderstood.

V - Vacation soon, please!?!?

W - Women who shower at the gym and take the time to put on socks and shoes, but nothing else before putting on their makeup or doing their hair are a mystery to me.  I know it is a women's change room and I'm not a prude, but why just your socks and shoes?  

X - Xenodochial, love the idea of paying it forward and try to in little ways.  Look it up, xenodochial!

Y - Young mom with lots of energy has always been my goal, and I think I've succeeded.

Z - Zoom is the sound of time speeding by as my babies become big girls.  I wish I couldn't hear that sound!

The Classroom Bully - Part 2

Following up to the bullying story from yesterday I decided to speak to Sophie's teacher.  I know kids can be mean, but I just feel like it is never okay for any child to come home from school crying.

Sophie's teacher was really receptive and said she is aware of a few issues among students in her class, but hadn't noticed Sophie having a problem.  She said she would be watching to see if someone was giving her a hard time and let me know if she felt Sophie was having an on going problem or if it was just a time incident.  She was really disappointed that Sophie didn't feel comfortable coming to talk to her and said she thought she might talk to the class about the difference between telling on a bully and tattle-taling.  I'm so glad I spoke to the teacher.  Even though there wasn't anything she could do and there was no real resolution it was really nice to know that she cares and wants the best for all her students.  So many teachers are disengaged and disconnected from their students these days and it is a true gift to find a passionate, engaged and genuinely interested teacher.  I think we are all feeling really positive about Sophie's upcoming adventures in first grade.  We can't wait to watch Sophie grow and flourish over the next ten months!

Thank you for all the comments.  Bullying touches so many people and I would encourage anyone who is interested to visit the following websites for more information:

Pink Shirt Day - Against Bullying
Roots of Empathy
Bullying Canada
Stop Bullying
Registry of Anti-Bullying Programs

The Classroom Bully - Part 1

As a teacher I often see kids picking on each other, losing their patience and failing at negotiating social relationships at school.  As a teacher I encourage students to talk things out, think about the consequences of their words and actions, and have empathy for each other.  As a parent I have trouble staying level-headed and thinking through the best course of action when my own child is the one being picked on.

Today I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place - jumping to your child defence (immediately) or teaching your child how to resolve their own problems.  Sophie falls into the category of being a 'highly sensitive' child.  She can be a tattle-tale and it is often hard to tell how serious a situation is because you never know whether her reaction is bigger than the problem.  After school today she said she had a bad day and next came the tears.

Apparently a boy in her class has been "bugging" her for a few days and today he was "really mean".  First thing this morning he stopped Sophie from being able to hang her coat and bag up.  Then, at the end of the day he threw her coat on the floor and hit her with his shoes.  It took me almost an hour to get all the details out of Sophie and she cried on and off the whole time.  She doesn't talk about her feelings and doesn't want  her teacher to know any of this happened - all part of being sensitive.

So the dilemma.  Sophie doesn't really want to talk about or deal with the trouble this boy is causing her, but clearly she is sad and not looking forward to school tomorrow.  The logical mom in me spent a long time talking to her about moving away from people who are bothering her, using her words and talking to the teacher if needed.  The mama-bear in me wants to call her teacher and get this problem solved (quickly).  The trouble is that talking to her teacher goes directly against Sophie's wishes?  What would you do?  Third week of school, and your child is in tears!  What would you do?

A Whirlwind!

Life has been a true whirlwind lately!  Lunch packing, clothes picking, laundry washing, house cleaning, lesson planning, book retrieving, home working doing chaos!  We are all settling into our new routine, but we certainly are tired.

Beyond the chaos, stress and a feeling incredibly overwhelmed I am loving our new schedule this fall.  Working half-time is amazing!  I have never really understood the phenomenon of being a stay at home mom with a full-time nanny, but I sort of (sort of!) get it now.  Sophie is at school full-time, Molly is at the sitter's full-time and I work half-time.  That leaves me time by myself almost every day to get something done.  I can do laundry without being followed around, I can buy groceries without listening to kids have fits, and I can go the gym without trying to figure out feeling guilty that I'm "taking too long".  I can even get extra lesson planning done during the day which leaves my evenings free for baths, stories, homework, etc.  This isn't to say that we aren't busy, but I feel like I actually have more time working half-time than I did being home with the girls full-time all summer.  We will see how the wallet feels after a few weeks of paying the babysitter, but so far I feel like this new schedule is really going to work well for us.

I'm feeling positive, energized and enthusiastic for the first time in a long time.  I can't wait to see how this fall unfolds, and as much as I hope the teacher I'm covering for recovers from her illness I'm secretly hoping she stays on leave all year and not just until Christmas.  (This is the one downside of being a supply teacher or earning a temporary position it usually means you are depending on some else's misfortune.  Makes you feel a little guilty.)  Maybe the stars are finally aligning and things are getting on track for our family!